Meat-chopper



.I. W. BROWN, In.

MEAT CHOPPER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I6, I920- 1,397,398. Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

UNITEN STATES NATENT FHCE.

JOHN WILSON BROWN, JR., 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 TI-IE ENTERPRISE MANUFACTURING COMPANY OF PENNSYLVANIA, OF PHILADEL- PHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

MEAT-CHOPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 15,1921.

Application filed November 16, 1920. Serial No. 424,357.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN VVILsoN BnowN, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residlng in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Meat-Choppers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain improvements in a meat chopper of the type in which a knife is rotated against a perforated plate, the material to be out being fed to the plate by means of a screw.

The object of my invention is to provlde means whereby the knife is allowed to accommodate itself to any inequalities in the alinement of the machine or the parallelism of the faces of the plate, thus relieving strains due to such inequalities and insuring a more accurate cutting of the material than heretofore.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side view, partly in section, of a meat chopper illustrating my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of part of Fig. 1, showing more clearly some of the details of the invention; and

Fig. 3 is an end view of the cutter.

1 is the casing. 2 is the hopper. 3 is the feed screw having a stem 4 to which the handle, or driving mechanism, is applied. 5 is a perforated cutting plate held in the end of the casing by a screw ring 6. Screwed into the end of the feed screw is a spindle 7 having a threaded portion 8, a square portion 9, and a round portion 10. 11 is a knife mounted on the square portion of the spindle and the radiating blades 12 of this knife having a cutting fit against the inner surface of the perforated plate 5 so as to sever the meat, or other material, forced into the perforations of the plate by the feed screw, as the screw and knife rotate. The round portion 10 of the spindle 7 extends through a central openingin the perforated plate and the bearing for this spindle is extended, as shown, so as to hold the rotating parts centrally in respect to the casing.

In ordinary practice, the rear end of the hub 13 of the knife is flat and fits against a flat washer in the end of the feed screw 3 so that, when the parts are in the cutting position, the knife is not free to accommodate itself to any faults in the alinement of the machine or lack of parallelism between the faces of the plate. In some instances, such faults exist and the knife will not make a clean cut, so that sufiicient strains are developed to cause breakage of the parts.

By my construction, the back of the hub 13 of the knife 11 is rounded, forming a ball, the curve being from the center so back of the surface of the blade so as to allow for wear. This curved portion of the knife hub fits in a socket formed in a ring 14 driven in a recess in the end of the feed screw 3 so that a ball and socket joint is formed, which will allow the knife to accommodate itself to the plate. In order to hold the knife centrally, and yet allow it freedom, the opening in the knife is tapered, as shown in Fig. 2, from the rear end to a point a. and the opening is flared from this line to the forward end of the knife. At the point a, the knife neatly fits therectangular portion 9 of the spindle 7, so that the knife is held in a central position, but is free to move in the socket from the center 50. The rectangular portion 9 of the spindle 7 bears against the ring 14, holding it in place, as shown.

I claim:

The combination in a meat chopper, of a casing; a perforated plate at the end of the casing; a feed screw within the casing; a spindle projecting from the end of the feed screw, said spindle having a rectangular portion; a socket in the end of the feed screw; and a cutter having a hub and blades, said blades fitting against the perforated plate, the hub being mounted on the rectangular portion of the spindle and the rear of said hub being rounded and fitting the socket forming a ball and socket joint, the opening in the cutter being tapered from the rear to a point near the front and flared from this point to the front so as to allow the cutter to accommodate itself to the plate and to hold the cutter centrally on the spindle.

JOHN WILSON BROWN, JR. 

